“Tufa, Dawn” — Mono Lake tufa formations under cloudy sunrise sky.
My most common way to approach Mono Lake photographically is to focus on the immense scale of the pace rather than on closer elements of the landscape. I like to set tufa towers against distant desert hills under the wide sky, or perhaps place them in front of the distant eastern face of the Sierra Nevada stretching away to the north. Initially I was doing something like that here, focusing on those offshore towers and using somewhat short focal lengths to take in the wider scene. But then I thought to include a bit of this near tower at the right side of the frame.
“Snag and Sky” — A skeletal dead tree silhouetted against a cloudy Cotswolds sky, England.
You might never guess by looking at this photograph, but I made this on a beautiful day with blue sky and dramatic clouds, in an area along a trail in the Cotswolds that was very green. I was surrounded by gentle hills, green wheat fields, and many spring-green trees. But there was this one dead snag, devoid of leaves, standing starkly against that sky.
“Tuolumne River, Dusk” — Dusk light on the Tuolumne River and Meadow, Lembert Dome, and the Sierra crest.
Photographing in the morning and evening twilight can be a bit of a crapshoot. The light can be soft yet intensely colorful… or it can simply fade away to gray. Familiarity with the patterns of clouds and light can improve the odds, but you still have to head out there and take advantage of whatever happens. That was my plan on this late-August evening when thin clouds stretched across the sky, presenting the possibility of colorful light.
“Spring Leaves” — Spring leaves, Botanical Gardens at Royal Victoria Park, Bath.
More than once I have mentioned that when we travel we like to just head off in interesting directions and wander, not sure of what we’ll see. It isn’t that we don’t view the main, iconic sites of the cities we visit — we don’t just limit ourselves to those places. Sometimes the wandering is very productive. We see places and sometimes people we’d miss in the tourist areas, and we can often find spots that are less crowded and hectic. I made this photograph in one of those places.
